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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §19.2.22.pr-19.2.22.3

Contracts for Work as Leases and Freedom of Price Bargaining

Passage 2843 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

Paulus discusses the availability of an action on a lease if a sale is rescinded due to non-payment, why contracting for work is classified as a lease, and the natural freedom of parties to bargain (buy low and sell high) in both sales and leases.

[PAULUS libro trigesimo quarto ad edictum. ] §19.2.22.prItem si pretio non soluto inempta res facta sit, tunc ex locato erit actio.
[PAULUS, On the Edict, book 34] Likewise, if, through non-payment of the price, the sale is rescinded, then there will be an action on the lease.
§19.2.22.1Quotiens autem faciendum aliquid datur, locatio est.
Moreover, whenever something is given to be made, there is a lease.
§19.2.22.2Cum insulam aedificandam loco, ut sua impensa conductor omnia faciat, proprietatem quidem eorum ad me transfert et tamen locatio est: locat enim artifex operam suam, id est faciendi necessitatem.
When I contract for the building of an apartment block on the terms that the contractor is to do everything at his own expense, he does indeed transfer ownership of those things to me, and yet it is a lease; for the craftsman leases his labor, that is, the necessity of performance.
§19.2.22.3Quemadmodum in emendo et uendendo naturaliter concessum est quod pluris sit minoris emere, quod minoris sit pluris uendere et ita inuicem se circumscribere, ita in locationibus quoque et conductionibus iuris est:
Just as in buying and selling it is naturally allowed to buy for less what is worth more, to sell for more what is worth less, and thus mutually to outwit each other, so too is it the rule in letting and hiring:

Notes

  1. §19.2.22.prinempta res facta sit — inempta (nominative feminine singular of inemptus) literally means "unbought", but here it refers to the state where the sale is rescinded or annulled retrospectively due to non-payment of the price.
  2. §19.2.22.2insulam aedificandam — aedificandam is a gerundive agreeing with insulam (apartment block), expressing purpose. Combined with loco (I lease/contract out), it means "I contract for the construction of an apartment block."
  3. §19.2.22.3quod pluris sit minoris emere — pluris and minoris are genitives of value (genitive of price). The relative pronoun quod ("that which") with an omitted antecedent acts as the object of emere, meaning "to buy for less that which is worth more."
  4. §19.2.22.3circumscribere — While literally meaning "to deceive" or "to circumvent," in this legal context it refers to the competitive bargaining in market transactions, where parties try to outwit each other and secure the most favorable price (buying cheap and selling dear) without committing actual fraud (dolus).

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §19.2.22.pr-19.2.22.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:19.2.22.pr-19.2.22.3

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